In the Middle
by jsq
Summary: Tony and Ziva, in the middle. Because that's where things tend to happen *inter-connected drabble series*
1. Of the Road

**...Of the Road**

He walks a line pulled taut between what he wants and what he can have. He wants all of her. For now, he can have her back. He can have her sardonic smiles from across the desk. He can have her trust, which is a promising improvement over the past.

He can also have patience, because God knows he'd needed time. Now, here he is, the best version of himself, holding on to two cups he finally knows he can fill. And he can hang out on the dividing line for a little while longer, waiting to tell her.

For a little while, but not forever. No one survives too long standing in the middle of the road.


	2. Of Nowhere

**...Of Nowhere**

Occasionally she becomes aware of her own heartbeat, and all she can think is "It is a wonder." To borrow an idiom. It is a wonder. That her heart still beats. That she still stands. She has lost and lost and lost. Sometimes she feels like the last one standing.

But she is not.

She is in a world, filled with people, and she has tried and tried and tried to find the right one. The one who will not disappoint, who will not lie, who will not prove himself less than permanent.

There is a part of her that whispers she has already found him, but she refuses to listen just yet. That part has been wrong before, and it is referring to one person she is not prepared to lose.

So she forges ahead, hoping that she is getting somewhere. But it feels an awful lot like being stuck in the middle of nowhere.


	3. of the Chase

**AN: Just to clarify, these drabbles are connected. They will form one story.**

* * *

**...Of the Chase**

It happens suddenly. Their suspects split, running in opposite directions. She takes one, he takes the other. There is no discussion needed. Professionally they are perfectly in sync.

His guy's heart must not really be into this whole "running from federal agents" thing, because he is easy to catch. Easy to subdue. He is cuffed and Tony stands. Ready to help his partner. Ready to gloat that she may be younger, but he is still faster.

Words wither on the tip of his tongue. He is watching her, and he sees what she misses.

It happens suddenly. Her guy stops, and Tony can tell she thinks it is because the suspect has given up. He finds his words just as the man she thinks she has captured brandishes the sharp, glinting metal he's been hiding all along.

His warning is too late, but he still believes it will be okay. You can't beat Ziva with a knife. Knives are her friends.

The man starts slashing and Tony's world turns red.

Knives are no one's friends.

And he is on his way to her, batting aside thoughts that he can't run fast enough, can't shoot straight enough.

He will not lose her. Not now.

Not in the middle of the chase.


	4. Of the End

**...Of the End**

The suspect stops, and she believes herself victorious. She grins because she has not even broken a sweat.

She takes a step forward, planning to seal her victory with the click of a cuff. But her suspect lunges and her partner screams.

And somewhere along the way she must have dropped her guard, because she is taken by surprise.

On her back, she thinks two thoughts at once:

Screaming does not suit Tony- children scream, adults should shout.

-And-

How is that she can still -_still_- fall for a loss disguised as a win?

The world above her begins to tunnel, and Tony's screams are far away though she can feel him kneeling next to her. He is pushing on her, and she wants to snap at him to leave her, to tell him that he is hurting her.

But she cannot find her voice, and that is for the best. He is begging her with his words and his eyes, and she does not want to be the one to tell him that they might be in the middle of the end.


	5. Of the Good Part

**...Of the Good Part **

"So we meet again." He says the words aloud, trying to make it real. If he is speaking out loud it must mean someone is listening. Light glints through the theologically ambiguous stained glass, and Tony tries to believe.

"I know what you're doing here," he continues. "Teaching me a lesson." Because if there is anything Tony DiNozzo understands, it is narrative structure. He and Ziva, they have been building and building and building. They are almost there, on the cusp of their turn. He has been feeling cocky, certain her reluctance is gradually transforming into acceptance.

They are almost there.

"But that's not how things work in real life, with real people. At least not in the life I'm living." In the life he is living, a normal case on a forgettable Friday has taken a turn, and his partner is once again doing battle with death.

She will not fight alone. He is ready to make a deal. "Get her through this, okay? I'll let her go later, if I don't have to let her go like this."

His God is a businessman- stingy too.

At least Tony has been raised to negotiate.

"Get her through this," he repeats. "Get her through this, and I'll hold up my end of the bargain. I'll walk away." Right in the middle of the good part.


	6. Of a Fight

**...Of a Fight**

It is sharp and relentless. It steals her breath and narrows her world.

The pain. It is bad this time.

Recovery is slow. A shortcut evades even her best efforts, and she must put her faith in time. She does so bitterly, recalling how it has failed her before.

And the crime-solving, it must go on. Without her. _For now_, Gibbs had said, but the new girl is beautiful and Tony is distant.

She pummels panic on a daily basis, reminding herself that "temporary" precedes "replacement."

"It is only for now," she tells herself.

And she carries on. Because Ziva David has never given up in the middle of a fight.


	7. Of a Sentence

**...Of a Sentence**

He sees the hurt shine in her eyes in the millisecond before she is able to neutralize her face. The words that follow illuminate the truth her eyes had told him.

"If you no longer trust my competency in the field, Tony, it is a conversation you should have with Gibbs."

He is frozen in place, trying to determine if he imagined the quiver in her voice.

She chooses "flight" before he can process his way through "freeze" and into "fight."

And "fight" is most definitely where he needs to land. Because she has him all wrong this time; it is not her he does not trust. It's himself. She has only been back three days, and he cannot forget the deal he made. He cannot forget how he failed her before.

But his need to protect has harmed instead, and now he will detour into "flight." He will be right behind her. He will catch her. And he knows her, and he knows her pride is wounded, that she will be in no mood for explanations. She will do her best to do all the speaking, not allowing herself to be reassured.

But this is important, and he isn't afraid of her. He'll make this okay, even if it means cutting off a ninja right in the middle of a sentence.


	8. Of a Storm

**...Of a Storm**

She needs to escape, but he knows all her hiding places. Today, though, nature is on her side. She steps out into the open, letting the rain sluice across her skin, letting the wind whip her hair into a tangled frenzy, letting the rumble of thunder and the slice of lightning soothe her heart.

She stands alone, confident that Tony DiNozzo and his pity will not sacrifice his perfectly tailored suit for the chance to deny the truth she thinks she knows. She turns up her face, welcoming the ice cold pricks of rain, willing them to make her numb.

It might have worked, but she feels the brush of expensive fabric against her neck, the squeeze of a strong hand on her shoulder, and she realizes that she has underestimated what he is willing to sacrifice.

To runaway now seems like overkill, so she allows him to turn her face to his, and she tries to listen to his words. But there is the wind, and the thunder, and their history of setting traps when they speak. She stands still, watching him struggle to compensate for the elements and the past. She stays silent, wanting to believe the best, but still too afraid to hope.

And it is really time he stops thinking of her as a ninja, because she certainly doesn't see it coming- the kiss he gives her, right in the middle of a storm.


	9. Of the Night

**...Of the Night**

The rain, it doesn't let up. The ground beneath them trembles with each strike of lightening. The windows rattle from the beating of the wind. It is dark where they are, electricity proving no match for nature.

It is lucky, then, that these two have never been afraid of the dark. And for once- _for once-_ they are the calm at the center of chaos. "This is what it's like," they think separately, but together, "to finally get it right."

So, the storm will rage, as storms sometimes do, and eventually they will realize that they still haven't gotten to the talking phase of "getting it right."

But that's okay, because the best conversations always happen in the middle of the night.


End file.
